Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Avraham Biran (1909-2008)

From the Agade list via Joe Lauer:

It is my sad duty to inform you that Prof. Avraham Biran passed away last night. He was one month shy of his 99th birthday. Avraham Biran, a third generation Israeli, received his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University under William Foxwell Albright and was Thayer Fellow in the American Schools of Oriental Research, Jerusalem, 1935-37. Formerly Director of the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums, he served as Director of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion's Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology in Jerusalem from 1974-2003. He participated in the excavations of the University of Pennsylvania in Iraq, at Tepe Gawra near Mosul, and at Khafaje near Baghdad. He accompanied Nelson Glueck in his epoch-making discoveries at the head of the Gulf of Eilat. Professor Biran directed the excavations of Anathoth, Tel Zippor, Ira, Aroer, the synagogue of Yesud Hama'alah, and the longest ongoing excavations in Israel at Tel Dan (under his direction from 1966 to 1999).